Return to Firetop Mountain (book)
Return to Firetop Mountain is a single-player role-playing gamebook written by Ian Livingstone, illustrated by Martin McKenna and originally published in 1992 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2003. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 50th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-036008-5) and 16th in the modern Wizard series (ISBN 1-84046-481-X). Creation It is a sequel to the first Fighting Fantasy book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, written to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Fighting Fantasy. It was originally planned to be the final book in the series, however due to its unexpected popularity Puffin published another nine books before they ended the Fighting Fantasy series. Background The book fleshed out the details of Zagor and the area Northern Allansia in the world of Fighting Fantasy. In The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Zagor was portrayed as merely a reclusive warlock who is guarding the treasure chest in the heart of a mountain, and the player's objective is just to obtain the treasure by slaying Zagor. In this sequel, Zagor was instead portrayed as an Evil wizard who was once slain by a heroic adventurer years ago and is now resurrected, seeking revenge on Allansia. The reader takes the role of another adventurer, and this time his objective is not solely for the treasures, but to rid Allansia of the evil Zagor. The reader must travel to Firetop Mountain and defeat the resurrected warlock Zagor. Unlike the first book the player must traverse the land to actually get to the mountain before facing its dangers. In addition, the second half of the mountain has been changed, giving the player no particular advantage from knowledge of the layout provided in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. There are several references to the original book, which includes a case that housed an arrow in the original book is found to be empty and a trap involving a sword disguised as a lever also reappears. Rules The book in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. (see Game System) Unique Rules The player begins the adventure with no Provisions. Equipment List *Sword *Backpack *Lantern Cover and Illustrations '''Covers The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by Les Edwards. When the book was republished by Wizard the cover was once again re-worked, this time by Martin McKenna. The "Special Limited Edition" of the Wizard version used gold embossing as opposed to the usual silver. #Price of 1st Impression #Price of 2nd Impression Illustrations The interior illustrations were by Martin McKenna. Intertextual References *The character Zagor was a major recurring villain in Fighting Fantasy canon. First appearing in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and The Trolltooth Wars prior to this book and later he also appeared in The Zagor Chronicles series of novels written by Ian Livingstone and Carl Sargent, and the later Fighting Fantasy gamebook based on the novels, Legend of Zagor. *In the encounter with the Inquisitor (18), the guardian of the path to the inner sanctum of Firetop Mountain, the player, if successful, is invited to peruse his library. Of the books in the library, five are named and two of these are titles of other books by Livingstone: Casket of Souls (which you do not get to read in the book), and Eye of the Dragon which had appeared as a short adventure in a non-''Fighting Fantasy'' book. Other Media Main Characters YOU: Hero of Return to Firetop Mountain *Oldoran Zagor Locations *Firetop Mountain Encounters Further Notes *Ian Livingstone makes a cameo appearance as the Inquisitor who had attended the School of Evil Magic, the School of Demonic Sorcery, and studied under the Necromancer Hellmoon before going into the service of Zagor and guarding the path to the inner sanctum of Firetop Mountain, in the illustration accompanying (262).25th Anniversary Edition of - 221 * Ian Livingstone dedicated the book to the crew that was sponsored by Games Workshop and won the "Daily Telegraph Ultra 30 Grand Prix UK Championship" in 1990 and 1991. In (238) there is a stylised illustration of this Ultra 30 boat.25th Anniversary Edition of - 224~225 *The fantasy anthology book Battle Magic uses the same cover art as the original Return to Firetop Mountain. Errors There are a couple of errors within this book: *When the player leaves the Gorgon's lair after killing the creature, an incorrect reference to turn to is given. From (79), the book tells the player to turn to (352), but in fact they should turn to (209). *(352) refers to an encounter long before the player have entered the labyrinth that is Firetop Mountain. *The player is required to collect 4 teeth in the adventure. In actual fact there are 5 to be found; 3 are numbered, one has a strange symbol on it, and one is just plain gold. Since the player also has to collect pages of a tiny book in order to know how to use the teeth, either of the unnumbered teeth can be used (providing the player has found them) as the book tells the player what the numbers are. Assuming that this was an oversight, the tooth with the flaming heart symbol was the one the player was supposed to use, and presumably the player know it's power if they found all the pages of the book. Dedication To all members of my Ultra 30 Race Team without whom this book would not have been necessary! See Also *''Armies of Death'' *''Caverns of the Snow Witch'' (Mini-FF) *''Caverns of the Snow Witch'' *''City of Thieves'' *''Crypt of the Sorcerer'' *''Deathtrap Dungeon'' *''Dicing with Dragons'' *''Eye of the Dragon'' (Mini-FF) *''Eye of the Dragon'' *''Fighting Fantasy'' *''Freeway Fighter'' *''Island of the Lizard King'' *''Legend of Zagor'' *''Temple of Terror'' *''The Forest of Doom'' *''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' *''Trial of Champions'' Reviews *[http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fighting_fantasy_gamebooks/message/2752 Per Jorner reviews Return to Firetop Mountain at the group fighting_fantasy_gamebooks] External Links *Character Sheet *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=11 Fighting Fantasy at Gamebooks.org] *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=94 Return to Firetop Mountain at Gamebooks.org] *[http://web.archive.org/web/20051127132124/www.fightingfantasy.com/ffb50.htm Return to Firetop Mountain on the Internet Archive record of the old Fightingfantasy.com] *[http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/ff16.htm Return to Firetop Mountain at the official Fightingfantasygamebooks.com] *[http://www.iconbooks.co.uk/wizard/wbook.cfm?isbn=1-84046-481-X Return to Firetop Mountain at Wizard Books] References Category:1992 books Category:FF50 Entries Category:Fighting Fantasy Original Series Category:Fighting Fantasy Wizard Series